On Friday evening, I turned to Ryan and said, “I love feeling like there are SO many new things to do this weekend and not enough time to do all of them.” Oh the joys of moving to a fun new city! I have to continually remind myself that we have plenty of time to explore, but the little kid in me wants to do everything now. Patience, patience.
Ryan and I have definitely gravitated toward Lake Norman, a giant and incredibly gorgeous lake just outside of Charlotte, for many of our activities.
(That’s Ryan flipping off a tall wooden post on Lake Norman on Saturday!)
On Friday before dinner, we took Sadie on a walk by the lake and found a secluded area where we were able to do some impromptu swimming. It was amazing but something kind of crappy happened. Ryan lost his wedding ring.
We were obviously quite upset but we’re trying not to get caught up in the loss of something material even though the ring was quite sentimental to both of us. Ryan always takes his ring off before swimming or working out but didn’t this time and without the Florida heat to swell his fingers like he’s used to, it slid off into the abyss of the lake when he was swimming around with Sadie. Finding it was impossible and when we arrived back home, Ryan showed me a nifty $27 replacement ring he ordered on Overstock.com. Ha! I’m hoping to find a similar ring to replace his original band, but for right now, that will work!
Losing Ryan’s wedding ring was the low point of the weekend, but fortunately everything turned around from there. We spent all day on Saturday at the lake with two of my blogging buddies, Brittany and Caitlin, and their sweet families. The husbands all had fun watching the World Cup while Brittany, Caitlin and I parked ourselves in front of the food (isn’t that always how it goes?) until the sun called to us and we spent several hours outside.
Brittany’s husband and Ryan swam in the lake with the dogs (and some stylin’ pink noodles).
Nope, that’s not Sadie. That’s Koda, Brittany and David’s vizsla! It was great to be around another couple who fully understands the craziness and neediness of a vizsla. They encouraged us to bring Sadie with us for the day so she could play with Koda and the two of them ran around for hours and looked like the most adorable little hyperactive twins.
(They’re both six though Sadie looks like Grandmother Time with her white face.)
We were there all day and left around dinnertime after an evening boat ride. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday. Days on the water are the best days in my book!
Sunday
On Sunday morning, Ryan and I met up with Steve and Lisa, the friendly couple I met at the coffee shop last week and checked out a new church. We really liked the feel of it but since the main pastor was out of town, we want to be sure to listen to him preach (and figure out where we’ll actually be living!) before settling on a “home church” in Charlotte. I have a few more churches I’d like to try out and am hopeful we’ll have no trouble finding one that is the right fit. It took us months of “church shopping” in Ocala to find Meadowbrook which we absolutely loved.
After church, Ryan and I changed and leashed Sadie up for some outdoor adventure!
Crowders Mountain State Park
We drove a little less than an hour to Crowders Mountain State Park where we hiked up to the top of the mountain and soaked in gorgeous views of the city of Charlotte in the distance.
We started at the park entrance and unknowingly went the opposite direction on the Crowders Trail loop that most hikers seem to go and ended up tackling some serious stairs to get to the top of the mountain.
What I thought was going to be a nice, leisurely hike turned into a workout! All the stairs gave me and Ryan a flashback to the challenging Koko Head Crater hike we completed in Oahu. (If you ever go to Oahu, you have to do that hike. It’s tough, but the view from the top is unreal.)
The hike was also quite humbling since we did it with Sadie who laughs in the face of elevation changes. The Florida kids in us aren’t used to inclines!
The whole hike was 5.6 miles and took us right around two hours. The first half of the hike wasn’t too strenuous, but those stairs were killer!
It was an active and fun weekend for the Fagan family!
Question of the Morning
- Tell me about some of the highlights from your weekend! Any beach/pool/lake days out there? Hiking fun?
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How awful that Ryan lost his wedding ring. 🙁 I thought I’d lost my engagement ring the other day as I always take it off before washing up and completely forgot to put it back on again. Luckily it had slipped down the back of my laptop and I found it not long after, but there might have been a few tears at the time!
Looks like you had a wonderful weekend! This makes me so ready to be at the beach this weekend for the 4th!
Wow you guys are awesome! It looks like you guys had a great time exploring. I love being in a new area as well. My weekend was pretty low key, and was spent with my hubby and our baby girl
I hiked crowders mountain early Sunday too! Along with our vizsla. My calves are sore today from climbing the 324 stairs!
I had a few crazy adventures of my own! I went for a bike ride and ended up clumsily wrecking. Luckily, the only thing seriously hurt was my ego. Wow, I would love to visit Charlotte. It looks like you and your family are really enjoying yourselves.
-Cait
That looks like such a beautiful place to be! glad you enjoyed it!
Awww I’m sorry to hear Ryan lost his ring but it looks like you guys had a GREAT weekend otherwise! Your posts make me want to visit Charlotte so bad! It looks GORGEOUS!!
I would probably buy a summer dress! Something cotton and comfy. Your posts are great, they remind me of living in florida. I’m in the northwest now and enjoying more rain than most of the country.
Your weekend sounds amazing! I love hiking and I love the lake. I’m heading home on Saturday and I am hoping to get in both lake time and hike time while I’m with my family and friends.
I love how green North Carolina is! Such a pretty state 🙂
Gosh all that beautiful scenery seems so romantic to me! So sorry to hear about his ring. That’s a major bummer. I would really like to go hiking with my husband so maybe this fall we can sneak away to Hocking Hills in Ohio.
Charlotte really seems so much fun!!! This past weekend I had fun at the racetrack!!! I love giving myself $20 to bet on at the races and push my luck… I usually just bet on the horse names I like … I won with Xtra Special … and only ended up really losing $8. So much fun!!!! This weekend I hope to celebrate July 4th with a sister hazel concert and some fireworks 😉
When my husband and I first moved to San Francisco we definitely felt like there was too much to do and see every weekend and it was hard to decide. This past weekend I taught some classes (BODYPUMP and BODYATTACK) and went out to some dinners and the Giants baseball game. Lots of fun! So sad about the wedding ring. 🙁
Ah no, sorry to hear about Ryan losing his ring but your weekend does sound fabulous! we moved to a new city 2 years ago and we still treat ourselves like tourists in our city – we love exploring new places and actually have created a list that we go through each week/weekend, trying something new each time! Enjoy exploring your new home!
North Carolina looks like a nature lover’s paradise!!
Koko Head Crater Hike is on my must do list when I go to Oahu for my honeymoon in August, can’t wait!!
Late to the comment party, but super bummer about Ryan’s ring! My husband bought us ‘backup’ rings for when we work out, yard work, etc… Good think too b/c he already lost his back up ring when we went skiing! On the bright side, once you find a new ring and a new church you can have your marriage blessed again 🙂
What a great park! I need to come visit that area!
Thanks for posting a link to a few of your friend bloggers… your blog is the first and only blog I follow so far, and I’m loving it so much that I have been looking for a few more favs to follow! Love your blog so much… my dog is my BFF too 🙂
Of course! Brittany and Caitlin are great! 🙂
Crowders is great! Check out the Linville Access trails too…my dog loves them because there aren’t steps and they’re a little less rocky climbing than the main gate trail. Welcome to North Carolina
I love Crowder’s, it’s such a fun and free way to spend the day. Plus it’s so close by!